In this Science this week, the students had to plan a waterproofing solution for some pretend placemats that we were planning for our prospective (pretend) Millgrove Restaurant. The students set to work testing out different solutions to our restaurant's problem. They found that wax crayons and rubber cement made the paper waterproof, but felt markers and pencils did a poor job. We recommended that the restaurant use the wax crayons because customers likely wouldn't want their lunch tasting like rubber cement!

We also examined different densities of liquids, and the absorbencies of different materials. We found that corn syrup is very dense, while cooking oil has a very low density. We also discovered that sponges are extremely absorbent, while nylon fabric, plastic wrap, and tinfoil are extremely poor absorbers. 2B would certainly suggest using a sponge rather than tinfoil to clean up a spill!